The Bancroft Strategy – Robert Ludlum – 8/10

“We have taken possession of the package, the note said. Enjoy your stay. Yet what truly made his blood freeze was the sign-off: GENESIS.”

Todd Belknap, experienced field agent for an undisclosed governmental agency, is incensed when his plans go awry and he is fired. On the same night that his own operation goes off course, his mentor and best friend is kidnapped on a similar assignment. Belknap refuses to abandon him and sets off to track him down.

Andrea Bancroft has long been separated from her moneyed clan after her parents divorced and the clan shunned the wife and daughter. Now, however, she’s been offered a place on the board and is intrigued by the foundation’s charitable work and the enigmatic leader…

I read a lot of these multi-continental, ex-CIA agent saves the world, rich foundation is actually evil thrillers, but this was a particularly well-constructed one. There were two narrator perspectives, but we didn’t flick back and forth between them at motion-sickness-inducing frequency. Yes the ending is totally predictable but the baddie is not AT ALL. The writing was high quality without being difficult – Ludlum’s reputation as the thinking man’s thriller writer (along with Harris) appears entirely deserved on the basis of this book.

Additional info:

This was a personal copy, purchased at the Notting Hill Book and Comic Exchange for 50 of Her Majesty’s finest pence.